Monday 17th August
Sunday gave us a cool start to the new day with cloud persisting all morning, only beginning to thin after midday, whilst it was variable during the afternoon, thus the peak of 26.7C was logged at 17.20. The high was 5.1C above the average. The past night was the warmest this month with the thermometer not dropping below 17.2C at 03.27 being 5.4C above average.
Monday initially began with variable cloud but just after 08.00 it began to thin with breaks in the cloud to allow muted sunshine to break through. There was only 1.4C difference between the minimum and the temperate of 18.6C at 08.00.
The cloud this morning is due to the low pressure system to the northwest edging closer that will push a cold front across the country today. There are signs on the rain radar of showery outbreaks occurring to the west of our area, over Somerset and Exmoor. There is a slim chance of a shower here around midday, however the probability is low, estimated at around 30%.
We are now firmly under an Atlantic weather pattern with the breeze coming from the west that will see maximum temperatures slowly decline over the next two days that by Wednesday will drop to around the average. The low pressure to the northwest will mean no wall to wall sunshine but is likely to produce sunny intervals as there will be more cloud being pushed across from the depression.
The end of the week will feel distinctly cool. At that time the forecast pressure charts indicate that the low pressure will have emigrated towards Scandinavia whilst the Azores high will build again, not over the country as recently but to the west of the UK. This significant change in the weather pattern will result in the breeze coming from the north due to the air moving anticlockwise around the depression to the east and clockwise around the anticyclone to the west, thus pushing much cooler air down across the country from the direction of Iceland.
The pictures this week will be of dahlias that I have just managed to keep alive during the drought. I sank pots into the ground, close to each plant, so that the water from cans did not evaporate but feed directly to the roots.